Shivta and Masada starting at Midreshet Ben-Gurion

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Shivta

   There is no water at Shivta, and yet a town of some size thrived here, in the middle of the Negev desert, for several centuries. Its people collected every drop of rain that fell on the surrounding hills and channelled it into cisterns, and they grew grapes, wheat and olives in the dry valleys around. Shivta began as a Nabataean settlement on the trade routes between Arabia and the Mediterranean, and it reached its peak in the Byzantine period, when it had three churches, houses, wine presses and streets of stone. It is part of the Incense Route listed by UNESCO, with the desert cities of Avdat, Haluza and Mamshit.

   Read the complete Shivta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Shivta is where the day begins. Next is Tel Beer Sheba.

2. 2. Tel Beer Sheba

   Tel Beer Sheba is a mound on the edge of the modern city of Beersheba, in the northern Negev desert of southern Israel, and it holds the remains of an Iron Age town that has been excavated and partially reconstructed. With Megiddo and Hazor, it forms the UNESCO site of the Biblical Tels, recognized for their importance in understanding the cities of the biblical era. The name Beersheba appears many times in the Bible, associated with Abraham and the wells he dug in the desert.

   Read the complete Tel Beer Sheba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tel Beer Sheba comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Masada.

3. 3. Masada

   The Dead Sea lies more than four hundred metres below sea level, the lowest point on land, and Masada rises above its western shore as a vast flat-topped rock with sheer cliffs on every side. King Herod built a palace fortress here in the first century BC, with storerooms, cisterns, bathhouses and a three-tiered palace hanging from the northern cliff. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, a group of Jewish rebels held out on the rock against the Roman army. The Romans built a siege ramp up the western side, and according to the historian Josephus, when the walls were breached, the defenders chose to die rather than be captured.

   Read the complete Masada write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 130 km into the recorded legs you reach Masada. Next is back through Tel Beer Sheba.

4. 4. back through Tel Beer Sheba

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tel Beer Sheba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Tel Beer Sheba, late in the day. Next is Shivta.

5. 5. Shivta

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Shivta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Shivta. That is the ride.